Method and apparatus for monitoring path statistics

• US 20060215567A1
• Filed: 03/25/2005
• Published: 09/28/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 03/25/2005
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Johnson, Erik J., Raghunath, Arun, Goglin, Stephen D.
• Application Number:
  US11/090,571
• Publication Number:
  US 20060215567A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/241
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/12 Discovery or management of network topologies

Abstract

A system, apparatus, method and article to monitor path statistics are described. The apparatus may include a channel implementation apparatus to implement one or more tagging channels and one or more counting channels along one or more paths capable of being traversed by a packet and a path counter to store path statistics associated with a path traversed by the packet according to a tag value associated with said packet. The tag value may be updated when the packet traverses a tagging channel, and the tag value may be read when the packet traverses a counting channel. Other embodiments are described and claimed.

Claims

1. An apparatus, comprising:

a channel implementation apparatus to implement one or more tagging channels and one or more counting channels along one or more paths capable of being traversed by a packet; and

a path counter to store path statistics associated with a path traversed by said packet according to a tag value associated with said packet, wherein

said tag value is updated when said packet traverses a tagging channel, and

said tag value is read when said packet traverses a counting channel.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein said channel implementation apparatus is to implement a tagging channel from a node having multiple child nodes.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein said channel implementation apparatus is to implement a counting channel to a leaf node having no child nodes.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein said tag value is to identify a particular path traversed by said packet.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein said tag value comprises a sum of tag values.

6. A system, comprising:

a switch fabric;

a processing apparatus to couple to said switch fabric, said processing apparatus comprising;

a channel implementation apparatus to implement one or more tagging channels and one or more counting channels along one or more paths capable of being traversed by a packet; and

a path counter to store path statistics associated with a path traversed by said packet according to a tag value associated with said packet, wherein

said tag value is updated when said packet traverses a tagging channel, and

said tag value is read when said packet traverses a counting channel.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein said channel implementation apparatus is to implement a tagging channel from a node having multiple child nodes.

8. The system of claim 6, wherein said channel implementation apparatus is to implement a counting channel to a leaf node having no child nodes.

9. The system of claim 6, wherein said tag value is to identify a particular path traversed by said packet.

10. The system of claim 6, wherein said wherein said tag value comprises a sum of tag values.

11. A method, comprising:

implementing one or more tagging channels and one or more counting channels along one or more paths capable of being traversed by a packet; and

storing path statistics associated with a path traversed by said packet according to a tag value associated with said packet, wherein

said tag value is updated when said packet traverses a tagging channel, and

said tag value is read when said packet traverses a counting channel.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising implementing a tagging channel from a node having multiple child nodes.

13. The method of claim 11, further comprising implementing a counting channel to a leaf node having no child nodes.

14. The method of claim 11, further comprising identifying a particular path traversed by said packet based on said tag value.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein said tag value comprises a sum of tag values.

16. The method of claim 11, further comprising generating tag values for said tagging channels.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein summation of tag values along a particular path results in a unique number for said particular path.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein said tag values uniquely identify all paths capable of being traversed by said packet using a minimum number of tagging channels.

19. The method of claim 16, further comprising modifying said tag values at run time to reduce overhead of determining a path identification for a path experiencing the most traffic.

20. The method of claim 11, further comprising determining global information comprising a path traversed by said packet by local monitoring only.

21. An article comprising a machine-readable storage medium containing instructions that if executed enable a system to:

implement one or more tagging channels and one or more counting channels along one or more paths capable of being traversed by a packet; and

store path statistics associated with a path traversed by said packet according to a tag value associated with said packet, wherein

said tag value is updated when said packet traverses a tagging channel, and

said tag value is read when said packet traverses a counting channel.

22. The article of claim 21, further comprising instructions that if executed enable the system to implement a tagging channel from a node having multiple child nodes.

23. The article of claim 21, further comprising instructions that if executed enable the system to implement a counting channel to a leaf node having no child nodes.

24. The article of claim 21, further comprising instructions that if executed enable the system to identify a particular path traversed by said packet based on said tag value.

25. The article of claim 21, wherein said tag value comprises a sum of tag values.